


Lack of Interference

by orphan_account



Series: Minds Like No Other (We Work Away in the West Wing) [2]
Category: Criminal Minds (US TV), The West Wing
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Fem! Spencer Reid, Josh and Spencer are cousins, prompt: caged, vaguely a case-fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-03
Updated: 2020-09-03
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:47:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,909
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26262145
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Josh is interviewing with the BAU regarding a recent case. They wanted to talk to both victims.
Relationships: Abbey Bartlet/Jed Bartlet, Derek Morgan & Spencer Reid, Spencer Reid & Josh Lyman
Series: Minds Like No Other (We Work Away in the West Wing) [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1902880
Kudos: 38





	Lack of Interference

Josh Lyman came in place of both victims. 

“She doesn’t want to talk, and I’m not about to make her.” He shook his head. He had an awkward confidence familiar to JJ. He put his hands in his lap. “What did you need from me?”

Derek took the lead. “Let’s start with how you ended up with the unsub.”

“Unsub? Is that what you call the guy that held us?”

Derek nodded. This was normally where the victims started asking what the BAU could possibly learn from knowing how the unsub took him and who the team assumed was his partner.

Josh didn’t bother with a question. “He was in our apartment.”

*

_72 hours earlier_

“We have three pairs of victims. Crossover across race, and age boundaries and right here in the District. He seems to keep them for a few days.”

“A married couple, a boyfriend and girlfriend, one business partnership. If it weren’t for the last one, I would say it’s a signature.” Rossi looked up. “What do we know about that last one?”

“We know that they were college friends who started the business in their senior year, have been tightly knit for years. Best-Man and Maid of Honor for each other.” Garcia shook her head. “They’re really close.”

“And it’s a man and a woman… could the unsub have thought he was targeting a couple?” Morgan fiddled with his pen.

“You’re leaning into this couple angle.” Rossi picked through the file again. “I’m not saying you’re wrong, but how many couples are there in D.C.? If he’s going after couples and we don’t know why, there’s a potentially limitless pool of victims.”

“And if that pool is just people he thinks are couples, and we don’t know how he’s finding them, then that pool of potential victims just expanded.” Hotch nodded towards them. “We’re still short one man.” No comment from anyone on why. “We’re meeting Metro PD in twenty. Dave, you’re taking Prentiss to the last crime scene. See what you can gather from there.”

*

_BAU Conference Room_

Josh recounted how his cousin got hit first – blitzed in the apartment entry way – and he was hit when he turned around to see what had happened.

“She forgets to take her meds, sometimes. And she faints. I thought… It doesn’t matter – what matters is that I don’t know where he took us.” Josh leaned towards the table. JJ had to give the man credit – he was a gifted, charismatic storyteller. “We woke up in his basement.”

“And you two got out. What was different about you that he let you go?”

“He didn’t. My cousin just knows stuff. She’s really good at that, and she used it to get her ropes off. She didn’t have enough time to get mine before she had to hide in the corner. She found the pipe, she hit him with it. I… She kicked him in the face after that, left him bleeding and unconscious and I don’t think she cared.

“I know she had a violent streak in her, and I’m not sure I ever wanted to.”

Josh’s eyes were glazed. The man had to have a rhetoric job – he was too good at speaking to have a job that didn’t make him work that regularly.

“She kicked him in the face. I want you to close your eyes.”

“Is this one of those cognitive interviews? I can remember it just fine without closing my eyes – he was an average white guy, it was your average basement. She cut me loose and we started leaving, but he was only out about a minute before he started staggering up after us. I pulled us into a side room, grabbed a lamp, and when he looked for us, I hit him again and we ran. We have a friend that lived a quarter mile away.”

“I’d like you to try.”

“I’m here to tell you what I know. What I know is he’s an average white guy and he tried to hurt my cousin! She’s been through enough, and there is nothing that I wouldn’t do to protect her. Now tell me what _you’re_ going to do to get justice for what harm has already been done.” Josh had a way with words, certainly, but his tone was its own weapon. Morgan was almost impressed and had he been any less of a behavioral analyst he would have fallen for the quick switch.

“Sir, we want to help nail this guy, bring him to justice.” Morgan leaned towards him. Mirrored his movement to try and bring him in. “We need your help, and ideally your cousin’s, to do that. All we’re asking is for you to cooperate.”

*

_64 hours earlier_

They got out and ran. It was Spencer that recognized the area. “Toby.”

“What?”

“Toby lives a quarter mile from here.”

“You’re kidding?”

“Josh of all the times I’d kid, is now one of them?”

It was dark out, and the two of them were staggering to get out and down the street, away from the man who had kidnapped them. There was blood on Spencer’s head and Josh immediately wanted to try and find medical attention. Or go home. Something. Anything to know she was not in danger anymore.

“No. No it is not.” Josh looked over his shoulder.

“Don’t do that.”

“What?”

Spencer glanced back at him. “Look, you can’t keep looking back for him or you’ll spend so much time worrying about him catching up you’ll get caught. Toby is a quarter of a mile away. Let’s get there, knock on his door.”

“Are we going home after?”

“Too dangerous. He knows where we live and how to get in. We go to Toby, have him call Leo.”

“Are you concussed?”

Spencer swayed as they kept walking. “Probably.”

*

_BAU Conference Room_

“And you went to your friend?”

“Coworker. And friend.” Josh waved a hand around. “He called Leo for us, had us taken to the White House. She hasn’t left yet. She’s good at focusing on work but she can’t keep going like this. She’s going to run herself into the ground.”

“Tell us more about your cousin.” More about the woman that was kidnapped by a serial killer and kept her head.

“She’s great. Whip-smart. Doesn’t let things phase her until we’re at home.

“God, we’ve gotta find a new place to live. She’ll never let her guard down somewhere someone got in.”

“You two work together?”

“Yeah.”

There was silence. Politicians. JJ took the next question. “For how long?”

“A couple years now. Is there a point to this?” Josh rolled his shoulders.

“Your cousin isn’t talking to us, we need to know what called this unsub to you.”

*

_60 hours earlier_

“If he’s going after pairs of men and women, but they’re not always couples, maybe it doesn’t actually matter if they’re couples.” JJ looked at the files, pulling at the occupation sheets and associations sheets. “Maybe all that matters is they look like they’re couples.”

“We know that already.” Hotch looked at the papers she had. “He doesn’t stalk them long enough to know if they’re actually couples or not. He’s disorganized.”

“I’m saying he’s organized, but that him not stalking them that long is because it’s the male-female dynamic. What if he’s lashing out because of something the women did that _reminded_ him of something his own girlfriend did?”

“You think he expects female submission?”

“And when he didn’t get it, he started lashing out at every woman he saw doing the same thing and every man that let it happen. If I had to place a bet, I’d say his first victim would have been his girlfriend or wife.”

*

_58 hours earlier_

They’d both been looked over and ruled to be in good health, all things considered. The First Lady threatened to call Spencer’s cardiologist over the cut on her head, but there was an assurance that she was fine, just missed a dose of her meds before they were put on lockdown. Doctor Abby Bartlet wasn’t convinced, but she was willing to let Spencer make her own health decisions.

“I’m sending the Secret Service to your apartment. They’re getting your clothes and you’re staying here until this man is caught.” President Bartlet pointed to them. “You’re not winning this fight, I’ve already had a guest room made up for each of you. Maybe now you two will have something like a normal sleep schedule.”

“Working for you?” Abby laughed. “Not a chance.”

*

_BAU Conference Room_

“Thank you for your help, Mister Lyman.”

“Can I ask you guys something?”

“Absolutely.” Derek kept everything neutral. Relaxed.

“When you know, logically, what someone’s capable of, but you haven’t seen it until now, how do you deal with that?” Josh shook his head. “And off of that, what do you do to help someone when they don’t always let people help them?”

“This is about your cousin?”

“She has a therapist, a damn good one, too. But I swear she needs more help. And after this? I mean… Never mind.” Josh shook his head. “Is there anything else?”

*

_48 hours earlier_

“Garcia, we need a name!”

Garcia’s keys were tap-tap-tapping away at their customary lightning pace as the team waited. The Secret Service had gotten involved. White House staffers had come under this unsub, and the Secret Service had stuck their noses in for vengeance. The sooner they got the intruders out of their hair, the sooner the BAU could do their jobs. Unfortunately, these agents were determined.

“These staffers are close to the President. An attack on them is personal.” One agent had said. “It doesn’t help that the one reminds President Bartlet of himself.”

Garcia cheered. “I got it! Okay, Daniel McCormick. Comes from a fundamentalist religious background and his wife went missing six weeks ago after a domestic disturbance that, according to rumors, started at church.”

*

_BAU Conference Room_

“Mister Lyman, we know you and your cousin went through a lot during the investigation, but we want to put together an airtight case.”

“I was a lawyer. I get it, the case is going to be a rough build.” He ran a hand through his hair. “But, Agent Morgan, I have a cousin that won’t sleep when she gets home. She had enough problems sleeping as it is, and now that’s going to be worse.”

“You two are close.”

“Close? My parents took her in, and I watched after her since she was eleven. She’s more like my _sister_ than she is my cousin. And she just started getting better.”

“Mister Lyman, thank you for coming in.”

“Yeah.” Josh grabbed his jacket as he stood up. “Thank you, agents. I really do appreciate all this. It’s just…”

He shook his head again.

“We understand. There’s a lot going on, you and your cousin just got out of a pretty tight spot a few days ago.”

“Hey, um. My cousin, she didn’t want to talk because she didn’t know how she’d be received. Didn’t want to interfere with the investigation or distract.

“But I have her card with me. Her personal is on the back – the second number from the last is a nine. She always says I write my nines like fours.”

Morgan looked at the card.

_Spencer Reid, PhD_

_White House, Deputy Chief of Staff_

“Thank you.” Morgan passed it to JJ. “We’ll reach out.”

“Personally or professionally?”

“Personally.”


End file.
